Garage-door opener



July 30, 1929. MLJ. LEWIS GARAGE DOOR OPENER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FiledApril 28, 1926 Mix M. J. LEWIS v 1,722,670

GARAGE DOOR OPENER Filed April 28, 1926 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 J Lewis v w o&N @N 3 I I 8 I N VN Ja ml m N 3 Q M n I i .m 7 1 7 Q .X III! I N {a an.3 Q v July 30, 1929.

III

Patented July 30, 1929.

Uhll'l'tl STAES MORGAN J. LEWIS, OF MASSILLON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO E. F.DUQUE'ITE, OF HAR'I-' rice.

VILLE, 01110.

GARAGE-DOOR OPENER.

Application filed April 28, 1926.

The invention relates to electrically operated mechanism for opening andclosing the doors of garages and similar structures; and the object ofthe invention is to provide a motor operated mechanism including a shaftarranged to be intermittently rotated in the same direction to open. andclose the doors, a pair of crank arms being fixed to the shaft, oneabove the other and located at suitable angles for the pivotalconnection of links connected to the doors, a magnet controlled switchbeing provided for starting the motor and arranged to be automaticallycut out by the door opening mechanism as the doors reach either thefully opened or fully closed positions.

An embodiment of the invention, thus set forth in general terms, isillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a planView of the improved door opening mechanism applied to a pair ofswinging doors which swing outward;

Fig. 2, a similar View of the mechanism applied to one single and onedouble door which swing inward;

Fig. 3, an enlarged plan fragmentary sectional View of the mechanismtaken substantially on the line 33, Fig. 4;

Fig. 4, a vertical sectional view through the mechanism takensubstantially on the line 4-4, Fig. 3, and

Fig. 5, an enlarged sectional view of the switch.

Similar numerals indicate corresponding part-s throughout the drawings.

The invention is adaptable to use upon any usual type of garage doors,such as the swinging doors 1-1 shown in Fig. 1 or the combination doublehinged swinging doors 2 as shown in Fig. 2, and is adapted for openingand closing doors which swing either outward or inward, as illustratedin these two figures.

The operating mechanism is arranged to be suspended from the ceiling,indicated at 3, and is propelled by means of an electric motor 4, of anyusual and well known type, supported upon the bracket 5.

Operation of the motor is controlled by means of a switch indicatedgenerally at 6 and comprising the contacts 7 arranged to be engaged bythe blades 8, which are carried upon the swinging arm 9, pivoted at itsupper end as at 10 to the block 11. or

other suitable support.

Serial No. 105,115.

An angular bracket 12 is supported upon the block 11 and carries anelectric magnet 13 arranged to attract the pivoted arm 9 when thecircuit 14 is closed as by one or more push button switches 15, drawingthe blades 8 into engagement with the contacts 7 and closing the circuitto the motor 4;

The blades are temporarily held in this posit-ion by means of thepivoted catch 16 until the same is automatically released, as will belater described, when the spring 17 throws the blades out of engagementwith the contacts, breaking the circuit to the motor.

A housing 18 is suspended, spaced below the ceiling, as by the bracket 5and an arm 19 and the shaft 20, from the motor, is journaled in saidhousing and provided with a worm 21 which engages a large gear 22,mounted upon the shaft 23 journaled verti cally within the housing.

A pinion 24 is mounted upon this shaft and meshes with the gear 25 uponthe crank shaft 26, which is also journaled vertically through thehousing.

A crank arm 27 is fixed upon the lower end of said crank shaft, beneaththe housing 18, and a similar crank arm 28 is fixed upon the upper endof the crank shaft, these crank. arms being located at suitable anglesto each other to provide for completely opening and closing the doors. Alink 29 is pivotally' connected at one end to each crank arm and at itsother end to the adjacent door or bracket 30 upon the door, dependingupon the construction and arrangement of the door to be operated.

A rod 31, normally held in the inoperative position by a spring 32, hasone end slidably located through the depending flange 12 of the bracket5, and its other end slidably located through a depending flange 34 uponthe housing 18. This inner end of the rod is substantially conical asshown at 35 and is arranged to be engaged by the radial fingers 36,fixed upon the crank shaft 26, as the doors reach the fully opened orfully closed position to move the rod 31 outward, against the pressureof the spring 32, engaging the angular upturned end 33 of the pivotedlatch 16 and releasing the same from engagement with the blades 8,permitting the spring 17 to swing the arm 9, carrying said bladesoutward, opening the switch and stopping the motor at this point,

In operating the apparatus, assuming the doors are in the closedposition as shown in full lines in Figs. 1 and 2, either of the pushbutton switches 15 may be depressed to close the circuit to the magnet13, drawing the pivoted arm 9 into the position shown in Fig. 41-,engaging the blades 8 with the contacts 7, the pivoted catch 16 beingpulled up by the spring 39 to engage the blades and hold them in thisposition.

The motor is thus started and through the gearing, above described,rotates the shaft 26 substantially one-half revolution swinging thedoors into the fully opened position.

At this point one of the radial fingers 36 engages the trip rod 31,pushing 519831116 outward, against the action of the spring 32, andreleasing the pivoted catch 16, from the blades 8, the spring 17throwing the pivoted arm 9 outward, withdrawing the switch blades fromengagement with the contacts and" breaking the circuit to the motor.

To close the doors the operation is repeated, the crank shaft makinganother onehalf revolution in the same direction and being stopped inthe position shown in full lines in Figs. 1 and 2.

It should be understood that the crank arms and radial fingers 36 may beadjusted with relation to each other upon the crank shaft 26 toaccomn'iodate different styles of doors. It is also pointed 0th thatalthougl'i the gearing shown in Figs. 3 and i'may be desirable forcutting down the speed of the mechanism, the intermediate gearing 2 2and 24- may be dispensed with and the worm 21 engaged directly with asuitable gear upon the crank shaft 26.

Attention is also called to the fact that the automatic tripping of themechanism to stop the same in either the fully opened or fully closedposition is carried entirely Within the mechanism itself dispensing withthe necessity of providing any switch actuating device upon the doors totrip the mechanism at each extreme of its movement.

I claim:

Door operating mechanism for a pair of movable doors, including arotatable crank shaft, a crank arm fixed to each end of the shaft, alink pivotally connecting each crank arm with one of the doors, meansfor rotating the crank shaft in one direction and means forautomatically stopping the crank shaft as it completes one-half of arevolution In testimony that I claim the above, I have hereuntosubscribed my name.

MORGAN J. LENIS.

